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Research published by Pugh, Wyld and Tyrrall (2001) was adopted by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) to provide the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of their lobbying campaign for a sliding scale of excise duty for small breweries (also known as "progressive beer duty"; henceforth, PBD). This campaign led to the introduction of PBD in the 2002 Budget. Subsequent evaluation (Wyld, Pugh and Tyrrall, 2010) established that PBD has helped to generate new businesses (well over 100) and new jobs (at least several hundred) that otherwise would not have been brought into existence.
Research by Lawton Smith into analysing firms' behaviour and the relationships between entrepreneurship and innovation and regional growth has impacted on policy-making by regions and governments with international reach though the OECD. An initial Oxfordshire focus of the research resulted in the establishment of the Oxfordshire Economic Observatory (OEO) (joint Oxford University/Oxford Brookes/Birkbeck) which facilitated the application of the results of the research. Since 2008 OEO has been commissioned to undertake policy-focussed research in a variety of national and international contexts. The research has led to Lawton Smith's involvement in influential policy advisory groups in the UK and overseas.
A major challenge to economic policy and public sector governance is how to provide a sustainable economic basis for less prosperous localities and neighbourhoods. Research findings demonstrated the need for a greater focus upon enterprise and jobs at a sub-regional level and improved co-ordination and integration of governance arrangements in order to tackle this issue. These findings influenced the development of national and local government policy and practice towards the economic development of deprived areas from 2004 onwards. Impacts were evident through shaping a significant re-orientation in policy approaches towards deprived neighbourhoods as well as the development of specific policies and governance practice.
Sussex Energy Group (SEG) research on low-carbon technology transfer to developing countries impacted on the policies, negotiating positions and funding strategies of a range of national and international governmental organisations, including DFID, DECC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the OECD Environment Directorate, the Asian Development Bank, the African Development Bank and the Government of Chile. In particular, this led to a shift in emphasis towards building technological capacities in developing countries as a more effective long-term strategy for facilitating technology transfer, and resulted in the adoption, by several of these organisations, of Climate Innovation Centres and collaborative research and development as specific policy mechanisms.
Sussex research has both contributed to a new phase of EU cohesion policy and been embodied into several areas of the new Chinese Poverty Alleviation Strategy. The underpinning research detailed in this case study includes analysis of the relative economic performance of regional economies in Europe and of Chinese development and disparities. It led to the researcher being invited as the only European academic to work on an EU-China high-level policy dialogue which, in turn, led to a series of major contributions to policy-focused field research where report recommendations contributed to policy development in both the EU and China.
The governance geography adopted for the new Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) in 2010 drew significantly on our research which showed that the functioning economic geography of the West Midlands included a distinctive economic growth belt that lies between 20km and 40km of the Birmingham conurbation. The approach taken by policy-makers and business leaders in the area to include this belt within the partnership area, extending it well beyond the core conurbation of Birmingham and Solihull, drew on research by Bryson, Daniels and Taylor. The LEP has continued to use the formulation of the enterprise belt in its subsequent proposals and developments, which cover an area with a population of nearly two million people, supporting 918,000 jobs and a GVA of about £35.5 billion. The influence of the Birmingham research on its approach is clear from the explicit references by the GBSLEP and other agencies to the term E3I, combining `economic', `entrepreneurial', `environmental' and `innovation' drivers of local economic growth, which was coined to describe the belt in the Birmingham research outputs.
The Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) has undertaken research providing a sustained contribution to understanding beneficiary-focused EU and UK rural development (RD) policies. This used novel, context-sensitive and mixed-method evaluation techniques to capture complex, systemic impacts and diagnose causal linkages between design and delivery, and policy performance. In so doing it has generated direct impacts in improved RD policy making and evaluation. The research has influenced restructuring in EU policy frameworks for RD and changed England's upland policy. By increasing policymakers' understanding of farm-level behaviours and responses to agri-environmental policy goals, CCRI's research has stimulated better-communicated and integrated advisory approaches.
UEL's International Centre for the Study of the Mixed Economy of Childcare (ICMEC) researches service costs and equity risks associated with the marketisation and privatisation of early childhood education and care (ECEC). Its interdisciplinary research, which is frequently cited in national and international policy documents, has contributed to policy debate within the European Union, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and other supra-national bodies, and informed the UK Government's development of ECEC and child poverty policies.
This case study details the research undertaken in the Built Environment Research Institute (BERI), Centre for Research on Property and Planning concerning the interrelationships across regeneration, value creation and innovative funding mechanisms. Outputs have impacted at the property market and regeneration policy levels with benefit arising from benchmarking of performance, enhanced transparency, changed perceptions of regeneration areas with increased appreciation of innovative vehicles for regeneration and infrastructure delivery. The underpinning research has been published in leading journals and launched at keynote events organised by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Investment Property Forum (IPF).
The impact arises from high quality analysis and evaluation of governance practices — ]especially those linked to diplomacy at the national, European and international levels. It centres on research carried out by Professor Brian Hocking at Loughborough University between 2005 and 2013, which has produced important studies of change and innovation in diplomatic process. These projects have involved close contact with diplomats and other government/EU officials, as well as dissemination to civil society organisations and students in a variety of contexts, and they have been influential in shaping debates about the future of diplomacy and training of diplomats in the EU, Australia and Canada particularly.